Dog attacks woman, child in Erie home

A 60-pound pit bull-Labrador retriever mix was euthanized this week after it attacked its family members, including a little girl, in Erie Township.

Erie Township police Officer Thomas Mohrbach said a woman in her 50s suffered numerous bites on her face and body that reportedly needed 200 stitches to close the wounds.

A 9-year-old girl also was bitten on the arm when the dog went out of control inside the family home.

“There was a blood trail from the living room to the kitchen,” Officer Mohrbach said. “When I pulled up, (the woman) was sitting on the porch and she was covered in blood. She looked like she was in shock.”

The incident occurred Sunday afternoon inside the family mobile home on Fairfax Dr. in the Hidden Creek Mobile Home Park in Erie Township, which is off S. Dixie Hwy. and close to the state line.

The victim is the legal guardian of two children, the 9-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother.

Officer Mohrbach said there were three dogs living in the home along with the dog’s owner, a woman in her 20s.

He said it was possible that two of the dogs started fighting after one tried to eat the girl’s hot dog. She was sitting on the couch when she was bitten.

The woman tried to protect the girl and one of the dogs turned its aggression toward her.

During the attack, the kids fled the home, with the boy escaping through a window. The woman eventually made her way outside. She later was treated in a Toledo hospital.

Monroe County Animal Control officers arrived and took away the attacking dog. Animal Control Director Sgt. Geoffrey Kovenich said the dog’s owner did not attempt to rescue the dog, estimated to be 5 or 6 years old.

“The family signed off on it and the animal was humanely euthanized,” Sgt. Kovenich said. “It was very aggressive.”

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